The Poor, The Poets and Monks

“I stand before you tonight to represent the people who do not count: The poor, the poets, and monks. As long as there are people who are trying to realize the divine in themselves, there shall be hope in the world.”

—Thomas Merton

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Thomas Merton distills the experience of being human in this life.  He was a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky.

As a writer, poet, activist and continual student of comparative religion, he wrote timeless words that continue to resonate and teach.  The quote above is from the closing he gave to an interfaith conference in Calcutta in 1968.  Thomas Merton transitioned from this life a few days after he spoke these words.

Young Monk

 

I Notice

At 3am I feel these words spilling out,

Soft moonlight on the newly fallen snow.

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I notice these moments with you, they do not fly by.  Lingering in them, I feel the sweetness.

Stitched together time, a history together.

Little big moments of a life shared.

There are many riches:  the fire in the hearth, your warmth and sincerity, the kindnesses each day, music, books, Little Bear, watching the snow fall, the leaves turn, the summer unfold, the new earth awaken in spring, feeling you with me, loving you.

This is our life, savored and noticed.  I am overwhelmed by the beauty of our days together…

Craig at Whitefish Lake with Reflections

Trees are Temples & Forests are Cathedrals

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“When you enter a grove peopled with ancient trees, higher than the ordinary, and shutting out the sky with their thickly inter-twined branches, do not the stately shadows of the wood, the stillness of the place, …and the doomed cavern then strike you with the presence of a deity?”
–   Seneca  

 

The Preserve, Light Prisms

 “Going to the woods is going home.”

-John Muir  

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“My roots are in the depths of the woods.”   
–   Galle  

 The Preserve, Acorn

To me, nature is sacred;  trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.”
–  
Mikhail Gorbachev

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